Brainwave Entrainment – This is using stimulii (such as sound, light, or EM fields) to influence the rate of our brainwaves, which in the process affects our mental state.
Our brain plays “monkey see/monkey do” with stimulii in the proximity. If you have lights flashing at 4 cycles a second, our brain will begin to mimic that with its own brainwaves. When our brainwaves are at a certain frequency, our body will do whatever it normally would do — we normally produce brainwaves of 4 cycles a second when we’re sleeping – so pulsating light at this rate would put a person to sleep.
Say you want to do this with sound instead of pulsating light – since most brainwave entrainment frequencies are below 30 HZ, and are often below human hearing range, you (usually) can’t just generate the tones using a wave generator. There are two methods that are typically used to generate these ultra-low tones in a way that humans can perceive them and feel their effects :
1) Binaural Beats – Using a computer or synthesizer (and a good pair of stereo headphones), generate two tones, one in the left ear, one in the right – your brain imagines it hears a third tone equal to the difference between the two tones. (For instance, if you had a 400 HZ tone in one ear, and a 404 HZ tone in the other, you would perceive a third tone of 4 HZ.) And this would have the same effects that a pulsating light at 4 cycles per second would. In order for this to work, the two tones need to be below 1000 HZ. There are two good programs for creating Binaural Beats : CoolEdit from Syntrillium Software and Brainwave Generator. The latter is probably the most user-friendly, and is good for people new to brainwave entrainment, since it has presets that come with it. (I found it to work very well, since it incorporates a strobe light into the mix as well.)
2) Modulation – While a tone at 4 HZ would be too low to hear by itself, if you generate noise and then fluctuate its pitch or volume at 4 times each second, this can also be used for brainwave entrainment, and would affect us the same way a 4 HZ binaural would. CoolEdit from Syntrillium Software is the best software to use with this method. (Although, he uses a slightly more complicated technique than just fluctuating the pitch or volume.)
As far as which of these two methods are better – binaural beats probably work better for brainwave entrainment, but the second method will work from speakers – headphones aren’t required. That can come in handy – especially when you want to experiment with brainwave entrainment while sleeping or meditating – ever tried falling asleep wearing headphones? I have a cordless pair, and even with those, it’s not that comfortable.
(And if that’s not enough information about Brainwave Entrainment, check out the Brainwave Entrainment links for even more.)
Brainwave Ranges – In talking about brainwaves, they are typically broken up into ranges, each range being associated with different mental states. The five common brainwave ranges are listed below (although I really simplify what they’re associated with here – for more specific mental states these ranges are associated with, consult the brainwave frequency list itself.)
Delta Range - 0.5 to 4 HZ (associated with deep sleep)
Theta Range - 4 HZ to 8 HZ (seen in dreaming sleep, and other mental states where the mind is wandering, like daydreaming and imagining)
"A person .. driving on a freeway & discovers .. they can't recall the last five miles, is often in a theta state--induced by the process of freeway driving .. [It's] .. a state where tasks become so automatic .. you can mentally disengage from them." http://brain.web-us.com/brainwavesfunction.htm
"[Our dominant brainwave] edges down toward theta when we go into trance." http://www.enformy.com/dma-chin.htm
Alpha Range - 8 to 13 HZ (relaxed but awake)
" [There is] .. more alpha wave functioning when we listen (but it edges up into beta when we do extremely active listening, as in the cocktail-party effect when we consciously narrow attention to one voice amidst a babble.)" http://www.enformy.com/dma-chin.htm
Beta Range - 13 HZ to 30 (??) HZ (normal awake state/aware)
There is an abundance of betawave functioning when we speak .. http://www.enformy.com/dma-chin.htm
Gamma Range - 30 (??) HZ to 60 (??) HZ (associated with consciousness - the brain stops producing gamma waves when we're put under for anaesthesia, for example)
"Gamma rhythms appear to be involved in higher mental activity, including perception and consciousness. It seems to be associated with consciousness, eg it disappears with general anaesthesia .. Synchronous activity at about 40Hz appears to be involved in binding sensory inputs into the single, unitary object we perceive." [INT] http://brain.web-us.com/40hz/default.htmNote that there’s a LOT of disagreement over where Beta range ends and Gamma range begins. (hence the question marks)
Also, some sources will take it and break it down further, into “high beta” & “low beta” or “Theta1” & “Theta2”, for example. And there are a couple other ranges like Epsilon, Lambda & Sigma that some sources throw in to the mix that really aren’t as commonly used.
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